Anticoagulants are useful therapeutic agents in the pharmacological treatment of, for example, acute deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, acute arterial embolization of the extremities, myocardial infarction, and disseminated intravascular coagulation. Prophylactic administration of anticoagulants is believed to prevent a recurrence of embolism in patients with rheumatic or arteriosclerotic heart disease and to prevent certain thromboembolic complications of surgery. Administration of anticoagulants has also been indicated in the treatment of coronary artery and cerebrovascular disease. Arterial thrombosis, particularly in arteries supplying the heart muscle and brain, is a leading cause of death.
Hirudin is a 65 residue polypeptide isolated from the salivary glands of leeches. It is an anticoagulant agent, which is a thrombin specific inhibitor. Although quite potent, clinical use of hirudin isolated from leech extracts seems unlikely because of its limited quantity, expense and allergic reactions which commonly follow administration of any foreign protein of this size.
Applicants have discovered a specific region of hirudin that is responsible, at least in part, for its anticoagulant activity. This region has been chemically synthesized and certain of its analogs appear to bind to the recognition site of thrombin but not the enzymatic cleavage site which is spatially separate. Binding of the synthetic peptides competitively prevents binding of the fibrinogen to the recognition site of thrombin, a prerequisite to fibrin production and clot formation. The peptides of this invention possess significant anticoagulant activity and their unusual ability to bind only to the recognition site without binding to the cleavage site of thrombin may allow for a scientifically interesting and therapeutically significant adjunct to anticoagulant therapy.